The invoices. The receipts. The follow-up emails.

None of it is why you started. All of it is necessary.

I connected #Claude to my #Square account and automated the part I hated most...payment collection, receipts, and client email responses. Three minutes to set up. Works on the free version.

I made a short video showing exactly how I did it.

If this helps you or someone you know who’s struggling to balance all the elements of starting a small business, I hope this helps :)

Link in the comments!

Joe

Happy to join Jeremy Rivera on the Unscripted SEO Podcast this week 🎙️

We talked corporate escape plans, building AI agents that actually know your business, and how I accidentally grew my AI citation rate 10x just by doing podcasts like this one.

If you’re thinking about making the jump — this one’s for you 👇

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While I was out there, my social media accounts were still active — scrolling, warming, staying in good standing with the Algorithm. I didn't touch my phone once.

I use a tool called Geelark for this. It's a virtual cloud phone that runs routines on your profiles so you're never posting and ghosting — even when you're genuinely off the grid.

Most people schedule posts and call it done. The platform knows you're not really there. Geelark fixes that.

Full breakdown of how I set it up in the comments :)

Hope you enjoy :)

Joe Zeplin

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Hey Friends! My girlfriend Alexis is building her own coffee cart - Twin Oaks Coffee! We are in the early stages so if you want to watch a small business get built in real time, follow her page. It will really help us out! :)

There’s no post yet, we just used SocialBee to plan & schedule all her social media posts so keep an eye out! Looking forward to sharing our journey with you! :)

Alexis & Joe :)

Why do we all start our day answering emails? Heck, you probably saw this on Substack or in your email. I wanted to get rid of it. I wanted to stop answering emails. They suck.

So I stopped responding…

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Before I turn on my computer each morning, Claude (like ChatGPT but better — #controversial) has already:

• Read every email that came in overnight

• Drafted a custom response to each one

• Flagged anything urgent

• Deleted what wasn’t worth my time

50 emails. 5 minutes. Done. Before my first cup of coffee.

"But Joe, my emails will sound like AI."

No. Wrong, in fact. Completely wrong.

Since Claude was already connected to my email, I asked it to scan my previous emails — to identify how I write, how I communicate, how I joke. I joke a lot.

I then used those findings to train it to write like me. Like a virtual Joe whose only job was to answer emails, except I didn’t have to.

"But I don't know how to set up AI. Training AI? I can't do this."

Yes you can. It's easy. I made a 3-minute video that shows you exactly how. You are discounting your ability before you even understand the skillset required. Expose yourself to the work involved — I promise it is easier than you think.

“But why aren’t other people doing this yet?”

People don’t know about features in tools they’ve never explored. Let me introduce you to this one and show you a very, very, very basic feature. The way you’ll be able to use this across other parts of your life and career will be monumental. :)

Thanks for reading!

Joe Zeplin

#JoeZeplin #CorporateGuyTurnedYouTuber #ClaudeAI

Three years of consistent videos. Tutorials on social media tools, digital business cards, post schedulers, payment processors. Every Monday morning at 5:30am a new video went live. I wasn’t going viral. But I was growing. Slowly, consistently, real growth.

Then at the end of 2024, the YouTube algorithm changed.

Daily views dropped 60% overnight. They haven’t fully recovered.

I hadn’t done anything different. Same content. Same effort. Same schedule. The platform just quietly decided to show my work to fewer people — and there was nothing I could do about it. Other than pivot or recreate & reupdate existing content.

That’s the moment I understood something I wish someone had told me three years earlier.

I didn’t own my audience. The Algorithm did.

The Landlord Can Change the Terms

Every follower I had existed inside someone else’s system. Someone else’s rules. Someone else’s decision about who sees what and when.

Building your entire business on one platform is like building a house on rented land. You can put in the work. You can make it beautiful. You can pour years into it. But the landlord can change the terms any time they want. Raise the rent. Knock it down. Decide your business isn’t worth showing to people anymore.

And you don’t get a say.

Most businesses don’t think about this until it’s too late. When things are good, there is no reason to grow your business into other markets. Most double down on their core business. Why would you? Everything is fine.

Until it isn’t & all your eggs are in one basket.

So I Built On Land I Actually Own

Here’s what I did after the drop.

I stopped waiting for YouTube to fix it. I started building something the algorithm couldn’t touch.

An email list. Something all of us on Substack are familiar with.

I know. It sounds boring compared to chasing views and followers. It doesn’t have a viral moment. It doesn’t have an algorithm that rewards you for posting consistently. It’s just a list of people who said — yes, I want to hear from you directly. And I appreciate all of those people :)

But an email list is the one place on the internet where you own the relationship.

No platform decides who sees your email. No algorithm buries it because you haven’t posted in two weeks. No feed change cuts your reach by 60% overnight.

When you send an email, it lands in someone’s inbox. That’s it. No middleman. No machine making decisions about whether your work is worth showing.

That’s why you’re reading this right now.

You found me somewhere — YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, a video a friend shared. But you’re here, on Substack, because at some point you said yes to hearing from me directly. That yes is something no algorithm can undo.

The Room Behind All the Doors

The practical reality is this:

Every piece of content I make now has one goal beyond the platform it lives on — get that person one step closer to being on this list.

A YouTube video points to a Linktree. The Linktree points here. A LinkedIn post ends with a link in the comments. An Instagram reel has a bio link. Every platform is an asset. A door. This list is the room behind all of them.

I’m still rebuilding my YouTube reach from the 2024 drop. I don’t know when or if it fully comes back. But I’m less afraid of it than I was before — because the people who matter most aren’t just following me on YouTube anymore.

They’re here.

Thanks for reading :)

Joe Zeplin

From a comfortable, cushioning corporate job I thought I’d have for years. For three years I also posted long-form YouTube videos. I called it a "business". But it was a hobby funded by a paycheck. When the paycheck stopped, everything changed.

Day 1

I calculated the exact profit I needed to live on.
Health insurance. Retirement. Living costs.
No guessing. A real number.

Day 2

I built a product.

Instead of waiting for YouTube ad revenue to grow, I turned my skill into a service.
I offered tutorial and review videos to software companies I trusted.
Clear offer. Clear price.

Day 3

I opened an old inbox tied to my channel.

374 emails from real companies asking to work together.

Some were over two years old.

I had ignored revenue sitting in my inbox.

For four days, I replied to every message.
Custom responses.
Over 10 hours a day.

Week 2

Sales started closing.
Over $10,000 in the first month.
Backlog of future orders just passed $30,000.

Week 3

We hired 3 more editors.
Added 1 person solely for audio.
Increased from one video a week to three.
Booked out two months in advance.

The lesson is simple.

Your hobby becomes a business when you set a profit target and sell with urgency.

Most people wait for growth.

I needed income.

That shift forced focus.

Here is a step you can take today:

• Calculate your “freedom number”
• Define one paid offer
• Email 10 people who already showed interest or likely to show interest

You might be sitting on years of ignored demand.

I was.

Now I create full time.

The same work I once did on weekends funds my life.

Now I spend my weekends fishing and boating with my dog, and cooking great meals with my girlfriend.

Start building your side business now, you never know when you might need it.

#JoeZeplin #SocialMedia #ContentCreation

In 60 days, I went from corporate employee to unemployed to self-employed. In the last 5 weeks, I landed multiple podcast features. This weekend, I’m flying home to tell my family I’m starting a marketing agency and planning to propose after 4 years with my girlfriend.

Here are 5 lessons this season taught me.

Lesson 1: Life Changes Fast

Big shifts don’t always take years.

One quarter ago, I had a stable job. Then I lost it. Instead of job hunting, I built my own agency.

On a flight home, stuck in a middle seat with two kids crying behind me, I felt the weight of both decisions at once: career risk and marriage plans.

Stop waiting for the “right time.” Make one clear move. Then the next.

Lesson 2: Prepare Before You Leap

Quitting without a plan creates panic.

For years, my girlfriend and I saved money, built skills, and tested ideas at night. Last year, she left her veterinary job to start a coffee cart. This year, I launched my agency.

Cut costs. Stack skills. Test on weekends. Preparation turns fear into focus.

Lesson 3: Zoom Out

People overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can build in a seven.

We met seven years ago working part-time jobs. I drove a 50cc moped with 50,000 miles on it.

Since then: graduations, corporate jobs, savings, risks.

Up close, progress feels slow. Zoom out. Think in decades. Act daily.

Lesson 4: Choose the Right Partner

Success isn’t solo.

When I designed my first logo, she suggested the slogan: “Start Small, Start Today.” I still follow it.

When she launched her coffee cart, I handled marketing. When I got podcast features, she helped with outreach.

Build with someone who builds with you.

Lesson 5: Small Steps Win

On that flight, while a toddler kicked my seat, I kept working.

No one sees the drafts. They see the launch. They see the proposal.

Focus on daily output. One post. One call. One saved dollar.

Stack small wins and your life looks different in a year.

Babies grow. Businesses grow. Relationships grow.

Take one step today. Then take another tomorrow.

#JoeZeplin - Corporate Guy Turned YouTube

r

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Substack still has a red spelling error line. That’s how new this is to all of us.

I just created this Substack because I have never been one for short-form, entertainment-like content. I don’t even have social media on my phone. I ONLY create long-from instructional content on YouTube & LinkedIn. You won’t find my content in the “scrolling world” it is a waste of time & not fair to humans who get STUCK in it.

1. Why did I create a Substack?

I want to show more of my personality. YouTube videos are instructional but you don’t learn a lot about the person. Their goals, ambitions, how I drove a moped for 4 years in college & put 40,000 kilometers on it. My hope is my Substack allows me to connect with real people in a way that isn’t competing for short form entertainment, rather long-form connections & understanding.

2. What can you expect from my Substack?

I always say that I have no idea what I am building but I am going to continue to work towards it every day that one day it will be so clear you can see it from the moon. I imagine that is what our journey on Substack will be like. Overall I want to share my thoughts on what it is like to be a Corporate Guy Turned YouTuber & share my experiences along the way. The good & the bad. It is tough honestly so it will be really transparent but probably an emotional read.

3. Why now?

I got fired. I graduation in 2020, got 3 degrees in 4 years. I was valedictorian (for my major), got all the certifications, worked in the corporate world & claimed the ladder fast. $200K+ salary, crazy bonuses & then I lost my job… 9 weeks ago & my severance ran out 8 weeks ago so content creation is my sole income & let’s just say, it is not enough to live off of for now. But that pressure might be why I try as hard as I can to make it succeed. I couldn’t find another job. Didn’t even get an interview. The world is changing & a lot of roles are being automated so I went the route of creating my own personal brand. My hope is that anyone who finds themselves in a similar position as myself might read my content & find the courage to pursue their dream, their hobby, their passions & live a more happy lifestyle

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